UPDATE: Onset man in wheelchair struck and killed by vehicle was in bicycle lane, arraignment this morning

Sunday

May 25, 2014 at 12:01 AMMay 27, 2014 at 9:33 AM

Joshua Macro and his friend and roommate Ryan Santos were coming home from the Fan Club on Cranberry Highway where they had been playing pool when the wheelchair-bound Macro was struck and killed by a pickup truck Saturday morning a little after 1, Santos said.

Frank Mulliganfmulligan@wickedlocal.com

Joshua Macro and his friend and roommate Ryan Santos were coming home from the Fan Club on Cranberry Highway where they had been playing pool when the wheelchair-bound Macro was struck and killed by a pickup truck Saturday morning a little after 1, Santos said.

The 24-year-old Onset man was in the bike lane along Onset Avenue and Santos was walking with him, he said.

Santos said the vehicle swerved into the bike lane and hit Macro’s wheelchair. The two men were near the intersection with Aunt Hannah’s Lane.

Santos, 22, said he couldn’t initially find Macro, the impact had thrown his body clear of the wheelchair.

He said he told the driver, identified by police as 28-year-old John Vandeusen of 20 East Main St., Middleborough, that he’d hit Macro. He said the driver had managed to get out of his vehicle, which had crashed off the road.

He said the driver “started breaking down,” and crying when he told him that he’d hit his friend, and tried to help him find Macro.

Santos said it took him a few minutes to find his friend, who was knocked up to 10 feet off the road, onto the shoulder, slanted downward away from the roadway. His friend was breathing but not able to talk.

Santos said he kept telling Macro to hold on, “stay with me, you’re breathing. Help is on the way.”

Santos said they’d been friends for about four years, and that Macro was in the wheelchair as the result of a dirt bike accident when he was 15.

He said that his friend had lately been hitting the gym with new vigor, that he’d been told he could improve his mobility and be able to walk with aid if he continued to work at rehabilitation.

Macro, of 11 Ninth St., was transported to Tobey Hospital in Wareham, where he later died from his injuries, police said.

Police said Vandeusen is being charged with motor vehicle homicide, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and failure to stay in marked lanes, according to a press release.

Vandeusen is being held without bail at Wareham Police Headquarters pending arraignment Tuesday morning at the Wareham District Court. The case is under investigation by the Wareham Police Dept., the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office, and the Accident Reconstruction Team. The matter is still under investigation, police said.

“I’ve known Josh since he was in grade school,” said neighbor Tom Hogan in a WCVB report, who said he used to play basketball with Macro. “He’s a great kid. I just can’t believe something would happen like that.”

Hogan said Macro, a tattoo artist who loved music, was wheelchair-bound after hitting a tree on a dirt bike.

“It didn’t hold him back that much, he adapted to it,” said Ed Ventura, another neighbor.

At the scene of the accident a few hours later, a mangled wheelchair was spotted in the roadway on Onset Avenue close to where the pickup truck had crashed in the woods. State and local police spent more than four hours reconstructing and investigating the accident scene. The pickup truck involved in the accident was impounded by police.